Nintendo: 3DS Price Drop & Ambassador Programme

Nintendo have announced that they will drop the price of the 3DS, in order to “create momentum for Nintendo 3DS and accelerate its market penetration toward the year-end sales season, when the lineup for the applicable software shall be enriched”.

The announcement comes after Nintendo announced that the handheld machine sold a paltry 700,000.

The price drops, according to CVG are as follows. In the US the price will drop from $249 to $169.99 and will take effect on 12th August. Australia will also have a price cut on 12th August, with the price dropping from $350 to $250 and Japan will see a drop from ¥25,000 down to ¥15,000.

While Nintendo haven’t confirmed the new price for the UK, it’s rumoured that the drop will take the price to between £150-160.

Nintendo also announced their new Ambassador Programme which will compensate customers who bought the 3DS before the price drop which comes into effect on the 12th August.

In a press release which can be read here in full, Nintendo said that although they may not be able to completely prevent people from regretting purchasing Nintendo 3DS early, the would like to thank those same people by offering them 20 free games that will be available for download from the Nintendo eShop.

The games are available to anyone who owns a 3DS and uses a wireless connection to connect to the Nintendo eShop before 11th August at 23:59 CET.

The programme will work in 2 elements, as outlined in the press release:

1.Beginning Sept. 1st, Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors will be able to download 10 NES™ Virtual Console™ games at no charge and before they are available in Nintendo eShop for the general public. These games, including Super Mario Bros.™, Donkey Kong Jr.™, Balloon Fight™, Ice Climber™ and The Legend of Zelda™, will be released as paid downloadable games, but Ambassadors can download them in advance of launch for free. Once the paid versions of the games are released in Nintendo eShop later in the year, the updated versions will be available to Ambassadors for download at no cost.

2. By the end of 2011, Nintendo will provide Ambassadors with 10 Game Boy Advance Virtual Console games. These include games like Yoshi’s Island™: Super Mario™ Advance 3, Mario Kart™: Super Circuit, Metroid™ Fusion, WarioWare™, Inc.: Minigame Mania and Mario vs. Donkey Kong™. These games will be available exclusively to Ambassadors, and Nintendo currently has no plans to make these 10 games available to the general public on Nintendo 3DS in the future.

Nintendo will announce more regarding the programme in the coming weeks.